Kesolis Stagg (BZPRPG)
Kesolis Stagg is a major BZPRPG character played by member Pohaka. Kesolis is a former admiral for the Brotherhood of Makuta and the former leader of The United Shadow. History Kesolis was created on Destral, approximately 98,502 years before the current BZPRPG storyline, by a Makuta named Ghestava in an attempt to create an intelligent creature with the attributes of a cloud of mist. This project was known as "Project: Evaporous". Ghestava created a shadowy creature known only as The Evaporous, however this creature proved to be too destructive and powerful, so he was forced to split it. The result was Kesolis and his two brothers, Gahzar and Srihr. The first 1000 years of his life were spent being trained by Ghestava, both in the art of swordsmanship and in the ways of the world. When it was over, Kesolis was molded into a version of Makuta Antroz, a great and strong commander, but also honorable in combat. It didn't take long for Kesolis to prove himself worthy of the Brotherhood's recognition, and he was given the title of Admiral and his own fleet to command. He named his flagship the Ravager. For the most part, it was Kesolis' job to target and eliminate rising zealous groups that may prove a threat to the Brotherhoods operations. Though Kesolis was unaware of what said operations were at the time, his blind loyalty to his creators pushed him into following orders. During this time, Kesolis became well known for two things, the first being his odd military tactics, such as breaking down the front door to a fortress rather than sneaking in the back. The second being that he actually seemed to care for his soldiers, he kept them well fed, shared any treasures found in enemy bases and even stood ahead of his army when they marched into battle. However in between fighting, the Stagg brothers also worked on a numerous amount of lab experiments, the two most well known being "Project: Vecha" and "Project: Core". "Project: Vecha" was originally proposed by Srihr, but perfected by Kesolis. It involved capturing a collection of Matoran whom were both good inventors and strong warriors and rebuilding them into a race that built weapons for the Brotherhood. The plan went smoothly, Kesolis' men swept the streets of several islands, taking listed Matoran from their homes and bringing them to Destral. Here, Srihr would wipe their minds clean of everything but their inventing and fighting skills, while Gahzar would rebuild them so they looked like their own individual race. Overnight, around 300 Matoran woke up on an empty island with raw materials and tools, from there, they began to build the civilization of Vecha-Nui. "Project: Core" was Srihr's idea to create an artificial intelligence capable of running Destral's computers on it's own. The Core was the result of this, a glowing ball of energy which fed on other energy and studied the emotions of those around it. However, it had slight side effects while it was left exposed, it often launched bursts of it's energy out of the lab and into the night sky. What these did remained unknown until one day, the Core's lab was attacked by four machines who seemed to be drawn to it's energy. After being defeated single handedly by Gahzar, it was revealed that the machines energy cores were being powered by an energy similar to the Core, it was assumed by the Staggs that these machines were "Children of The Core" as was the phrase coined by Srihr. Kesolis usually worked with Gahzar on assault missions as the two worked well together. However, the more he became acquainted to Gahzar, the more suspicious he became of Srihr and eventually he began to believe that his older brother would betray the Brotherhood. His first clue came when he overheard Ghestava speaking of eliminating Srihr, a few months later, Ghestava was reported missing in action. Kesolis of course, was the first to volunteer looking for him. After about a year of searching, one of Kesolis' men stumbled across a suit of armor which fit Ghestava's description, it appeared to be slightly mutated, leading Kesolis to believe someone had used Energized Protodermis to murder his creator. While some believed that Ghestava was killed by another harmless rebellion, Kesolis knew deep inside that Srihr was behind it. His suspicions were confirmed when he saw Ghestava's Kanohi Jutlin and Staff of Vaporization in the hands of one of Srihr's lab assistants. Kesolis would later confront Srihr in his main laboratory, approximately 1 kio off the shore of Artidax. During this meeting, Srihr attempted to persuade Kesolis in aligning with him and creating their own faction which would rival the Brotherhood of Makuta. When Kesolis refused, Srihr returned to his lab, only to see it explode in flames thanks to Gahzar. Srihr, outnumbered and out matched tried to escape with his lab assistant, Mahkaal in one of the remaining cargo ships, however, an electricity Toa and a Steltian by the name of Dymandus interfered, capturing Mahkaal and sabotaging Srihr's escape. As Kesolis watched Srihr sing beneath the silvery sea in a flaming wreck, he believed he had seen the last of his twisted brother. Kesolis remained with the Brotherhood for many years, following whatever they assigned him. Despite losing The Core and it's protective shell, Colosa-Xa in a future battle on Destral, Kesolis and Gahzar would have to sort out a new problem: The Vechan Matoran. Word had it that certain kinds of weaponry were being shipped to other islands, when one of these weapons was confiscated on Metru Nui, the craftsmanship matched that of the Vechs. As it turned out, a neighboring island to Vecha Nui, known only as The Desolate Zone had made friendly with the Vechan Matoran. Their leader, an Ice Toa by the name of Frezra had taught the Matoran the way of the Matoran Universe, of the Three Virtues and was ultimately able to break the Vechan's 'programming'. With the Matoran proving to be an immediate threat, Kesolis was forced to to come to the conclusion that he would have to destroy his own creations. The first step of his plan was to meet with a Skakdi by the name of Kavian Gatai Iusk who was currently in charge of shipping the Vechan's weaponry. Using his superior intelligence, Kesolis was able to deceive Kavian into launching a 100 year war between his Skakdi and their former allies. Phase two had been implemented long ago, at the four machines who had come looking for The Core (who were now properly referred to as the MT-100's) were more than happy to attack their own creations. While it seemed to be a good plan at first, the diminutive Matoran and their six Toa were able to over power the Skakdi and supposedly kill Kavian. However a later reconnaissance mission revealed the Skakdi General was barely alive at the bottom of a chasm in Ko-Vecha and was able to be saved by Kesolis and one of Rykose's old inventions. From this point, the leader of the four machines, Hydrax, lead an assault on The Desolate Zone and was capable of wiping out the entire population, with the exception of Frezra, who was later subjected to one of Kesolis' later experiments. After this, Hydrax successfully kidnapped two of Vecha Nui's Toa, Slyzeir and Atanamis and through Kesolis' intimidation, blackmailed the two into turning on their city. In an over night purge, Slyz and Atan were able to gain three allies (Gruun, Garik and Tarik) and slaughtered 3 of the four remaining Vechan Toa. Everything was in place and with one final assault, personally lead by Gahzar, the Vechan race was extinguished with the exception of Slyz & co. and 19 additional survivors. Despite this victory, three of the MT-100's, Cindrax, Rytax and Aradax, were reported M.I.A. and Hydrax was found damaged under a pile of rubble. With a good portion of the Vechan's dead, Kesolis ordered Slyz to track down the survivors, kill their leader, Miron, and capture the rest. When the Slyz's squad was found dead with himself, Atan and Gruun missing, Kesolis knew his allies had found a way out of their contract and had to be killed. In a short time, Hydrax and Bones were able to kill Slyz, but lost track of Atan and Gruun. It eventually reached the point in time when Teridax's plan had come to an end, and the Order of Mata Nui launched their attack on Destral. After Tridax's defeat, Kesolis decided to gather his remaining forces and go down swinging, but was stopped by his old friend and Ghestava's former lab assistant, Rykose. He revealed that he was in fact a spy for the Order, sent to watch over the three Staggs. To Kesolis' surprise, Rykose told him that he and Gahzar had to escape Destral and never return to the Brotherhood, no matter what the outcome of the war. Kesolis reluctantly complied. Kesolis, Gahzar and what remained of their troops fled to the ruins of Srihr's old laboratory, where they would stay until the universe returned to order. It was around this time that Kesolis learned of the group who had been protecting the Matoran all this time; the Kin. Kesolis sent Kavian and Hydrax ahead of him to set up shop. In this time they killed the Vechan leader, Miron, recovered the lost MT units, Rytax and Aradax, and set up a temporary base in an abandoned Ta-Metru forge. It was here that Kesolis decided to join the fight and officially too command of The Fist of Judgment. To begin implementing his plans, Kesolis set out to unite himself with three additional evil factions residing in Metru Nui. He set up a new base, via by a sentient ice Rahi Makuta Ghestava created and sent letters to the other factions telling them to meet with him. The United Shadow was born. Soon after, he formed an alliance with Xerius, in an attempt to stage a second attack on the Kin, however when Xerius switched sides at the last moment, Kesolis took over and lead TUS and the other assembled evils to Saeras Islet. During this attack, Kesolis discovered Colosa-Xa (and the inactive Core inside him) had also joined the Kin so he made it his top priority to capture it. When Cindrax interfered, Kesolis was forced to cut down his former commander. With multiple casualties on his side, Kesolis and TUS were forced to once again retreat, this time to The Merciless Judge and Gahzar. It was here that they were approached by Loki, and offered an alliance. Kesolis and Ariz traveled to Terros-Nui to meet with Azluth and The United Shadow officially allied with The League, and unofficially allied with the Santun. In return, Azluth altered time to bring TUS' future base into existence. During the sweep of his former base, Kesolis was attacked by Bones, who revealed that Srihr was alive and that he had been working for him the whole time. The battle was brief and ended in Kesolis turning Bones' own scythe against him, effectively destroying the double agent. Or so he thought. Due to this news, Kesolis ordered Gahzar to capture the Kin Toa, and Srihr's former slave, Mahkaal so they could interrogate him. Through this they learned that Srihr planned to reunite the three Staggs back into The Evaporous. Over the weeks that followed, Kesolis worked on rebuilding his forces and setting up Penumbra Citadel. The result was a Core powered sentient base, and an army of brand new Karda Drones. When Loki came and told him of another planed attack on the Kin, Kesolis was sure that the third time was the charm. He was right, due to the combined League and TUS forces, the Kin's base was destroyed and their forces were scattered. But Kesolis was not there to savor the moment. During the battle, he and Gahzar were attacked by Srihr, who teleported them to an neighboring islet. It was here that Srihr revealed that he was what remained of The Evaporous, and that Srihr had just been an alias. He then attacked Kesolis and Gahzar and defeated them in battle. With his victory, The Evaporous absorbed Kesolis and Gahzar back into his essence, finally returning to full power. It is here that Kesolis and Gahzar remain, lost in the mind of The Evaporous, with no hope of escape, while The Evaporous uses his army, and everything Kesolis worked so hard to achieve, to plunge Metru Nui into darkness. When The Evaporous' mentality was destroyed, Kesolis, kept alive by his mental shielding, was set free, but unable to escape his mental prison. He was finally rescued by Saeras, and given full control over The Evaporous' body and powers, in exchange for aiding the Kin in their darkest hour. As the Kin gave him back his body and soldiers, Kesolis more willingly complied, pledging himself to ally with the Kin and give his full services to them. On Locus-Abeo Kesolis leads what remains of his TUS forces, this time with the intention of making sure the fall of the Matoran universe doesn't repeat itself. Abilities and Traits Kesolis was a strong leader and an excellent strategist, winning many small battles for the Brotherhood of Makuta. Despite his employer's ruthless nature, Kesolis took good care of his men and had their best interests in mind. He was very clam minded, and rarely lost his temper. Kesolis had many powers at his disposal, the most notable was his joint element of Shadow and Ice. He also had strong mental abilities, such as telekinesis and telepathy. He also seemed to have the ability to teleport himself and others through the use of shadow and ice, as seen when he rescued his men when The Old Guard attacked the forge they were staying in. Like the other Staggs, he was able to absorb the spirits of his enemies in order to live longer. He did this through his sword, the Specter Saber. He also wore the Kanohi Avsa, which was really his helmet. Kesolis was also a skilled swordsman and could hold his own in battle. After being revived, Kesolis retains his new powers, as well as most of The Evaporous' old powers, such as the element of fire (including Gahzar's pyrokinesis), and the ability to create illusions. He also wears The Evaporous' old Kanohi Crast. While Kesolis can't be killed by conventional methods, such as being stabbed or shot, his essence is very vulnerable to the elements and elemental attacks, and will slowly die if he is without his armor or another shell. When hurt, parts of the vapor die by condensing into a black liquid. Kesolis is not invincible, without his armor he can be killed very easily, and looses control of most, if not all, of his powers. Despite his actions, Kesolis can't truly be considered a villain, but more of an anti-hero, as his intentions of balancing the world were good, he just attempted to do so in a less than righteous way, by attempting to destroy the Kin and the other factions of Metru-Nui. Category:Stagg (BZPRPG)